Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk juggles roles across multiple companies, from xAI to SpaceX to his flagship electric vehicle maker. You'd think choosing just three people for an epic dinner party would be impossible for someone with his connections and interests. But when podcaster Katie Miller posed the classic hypothetical during a December 2025 interview, Musk had his answer ready.
The Guest List
Miller asked the question we've all probably considered at some point: if you could have dinner with three people, dead or alive, who would you choose and what would you serve?
"Maybe Shakespeare, Ben Franklin, Nikola Tesla," Musk responded without missing a beat. Playwright William Shakespeare, founding father Ben Franklin, and inventor Nikola Tesla would get the coveted seats at his table.
There was no hesitation, no debate. The names rolled off his tongue like he'd been thinking about this for years.
"There's a lot of people I would've liked to have talked to," Musk admitted, suggesting this was the shortened version of a much longer list.
As for the menu? Given the once-in-a-lifetime nature of this gathering, Musk said he'd probably go with something elaborate, maybe a 12-course meal. "Probably not going to serve cheeseburgers," he quipped.
It's worth noting that meals have shaped Musk's career before. The idea for Tesla reportedly came from a lunch conversation that was originally supposed to be about space travel and hydrogen-powered airplanes. Sometimes the best ideas emerge over food.
Why Shakespeare Gets a Seat
If you've followed Musk on social media over the years, his Shakespeare selection shouldn't come as a shock. The billionaire has quoted the Bard repeatedly on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Before sending a letter to Twitter executives about potential bot accounts during his takeover saga, Musk tweeted: "O Wonder! How many godly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't." The lines come from "The Tempest," though Musk clarified he preferred them "literally vs ironically."
When a follower asked which Shakespeare play was his favorite, Musk's response was simple: "Romeo and Juliet."
He's woven Shakespeare into other moments too. When discussing his theory that Nick Szabo might be Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, Musk mused: "What is a name, anyway? It's a name, attached to an idea. What does it even mean really?" The quote echoes Juliet's famous lines from "Romeo and Juliet."
After Greek composer Vangelis passed away, Musk used a line from "Hamlet" to pay tribute: "Good night, sweet maestro, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
Back in 2016, when asked about his favorite poet, Musk named Shakespeare without hesitation: "Shakespeare. Then love-devouring death do what he dare; it is enough I may call her mine."
Franklin's Entrepreneurial Spirit
Ben Franklin's inclusion might seem less obvious than the others, but the founding father has long been a Musk favorite. It makes sense when you consider what Franklin represents: the self-made inventor-entrepreneur who started with nothing.
"I would say, certainly, he's one of the people I most admire," Musk said in an interview with Kevin Rose. "Franklin was pretty awesome."
One of Musk's go-to book recommendations has been "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson, the same biographer who later wrote Musk's own biography. Franklin's inventions, from the lightning rod to bifocal glasses, clearly resonated with Musk's own innovative mindset.
"You can see how [Franklin] was an entrepreneur. He started from nothing. He was just a runaway kid," Musk explained. That bootstrapping narrative, the idea of building something from scratch, clearly strikes a chord with the Tesla CEO.
The Namesake Inventor
Perhaps the most predictable guest on Musk's list is Nikola Tesla himself. The Serbian-American inventor's contributions to electricity and alternating current literally gave Tesla its name, so having him at dinner feels like a natural choice.
Musk has praised Tesla's work publicly before. "Nikola Tesla was great and AC was the right move back then," he tweeted. "These days, with the proliferation of electronics that use DC and advanced power electronics, it would be better to use DC. High voltage DC is also materially more efficient for long distance electricity transmission."
The company's name itself carries weight. While there's debate about who technically founded Tesla, Musk has revealed in past interviews that he paid $75,000 for the rights to the Tesla Motors name and trademark. Without securing those rights, the electric vehicle giant might have been called something entirely different.
So there you have it: a poet who understood human nature, an inventor-entrepreneur who built himself from nothing, and the electrical pioneer whose name adorns one of Musk's most famous ventures. Not a bad dinner party, all things considered. Though one can only imagine what a conversation between those four minds would actually sound like.